HealthCare.gov fixes improve website but a few bugs linger

By Russ Britt

What a difference a couple of days make…

On Saturday, we reported that the main Obamacare website, HealthCare.gov, didn’t appear to be close to working properly when we tried to apply. We kept running into blockages that said the site wasn’t working and it encouraged us to come back.

Bloomberg

Well, we did on Monday morning and the experience was much better, though it may not be quite as smooth as advertised in news reports. For the first time since Oct. 1, we got through virtually all the application process — though we fell short of signing on the electronic line. (All that stuff about possible perjury charges if we weren’t exactly truthful on the form got us a little skittish.)

Simply put, if the exchange had operated this efficiently when it opened for business, we in the news game probably would have been scrambling to find something else to write about these last two months.

Further, we discovered we could get a mid-priced silver plan in, say, Birmingham, Ala. for $343 in monthly premiums. We entered an annual household income level of $60,000 (also not truthful, designed purely to see what subsidies were available) and found that slightly more than half of it — 52% — would be paid via government assistance.

A little history: We created this fictional account when President Obama’s health-care overhaul went into effect two months ago and, until now, we haven’t been able to get past the first couple of steps in the application process before being told the website is down. This is a first for us.

There are a couple of caveats. The state of Alabama is notorious for having allowed Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama to hold a virtual monopoly on coverage with nearly 90% of the market in the past. Obamacare opens the individual market up a little bit in that state but only Humana Inc.
/quotes/zigman/229688/delayed/quotes/nls/humHUM competes with BCBS Alabama in the public exchange there.

Also, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid officials said that average wait times to navigate from page to page are now down to one second. We waited more than 35 seconds in some cases for the site to process one answer we gave and move onto another question in the online application.

We also went back and tried to start a new application just to see what the process was like when starting fresh. We got this message: “HealthCare.gov has a lot of visitors right now! We need you to wait here, so we can make sure there’s room for you to have a good experience on our site.”

Eventually the site pushes through and allows applicants to continue, but it takes some time. A comfortable chair is highly recommended.

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Health Exchange guides investors to the crucial market intelligence they need to keep up with the health care industry, which makes up one-sixth of the U.S. economy. Anchored by Russ Britt, Health Exchange is the essential site for those looking for the most important news, data and analysis on the sector. You can reach Russ at Rbritt@marketwatch.com.